Classmate Octane- Fountain Pen Review (gsvirdi)


Classmate Octane - Fountain Pen Review by gsvirdi



Hello Dear readers,

This is a review about the above mentioned fountain pen by ITC, I had bought this pen on 24th of August, 2018 from BigBasket. So let's start with how I came to know about this product... Images of this pen are in the bottom of the post.


I saw this product very first while browsing for our monthly groceries on BigBasket app.


Snapshot from Big Basket app
To be honest I was really very sceptical about this pen as it was just Rs.34 and sadly only 1 photo was available on the app for this product. I tried to search on Amazon/Flipkart to verify the product but no luck there too. Bt now if you search for this pen then u will be able to find it on amazon, I have not tried to search on flipkart.
Classmate Octane Fountain pen
At last I decided to Open chat and ask customer care executives... My main concern was the future of this pen. In the package they are writing extra long cartridges, but how much long these two refills will go-on.... The only hepful future is to inculde an Quink converter with the pen. Using the Quink converter we can refill ink in the pen and keep using it as long as possible. For those who don't know what's an Quink Converter then here's a photo of it....
Quink converter for fountain pen

I found somebody who asked me to wait and then got back with a positive reply telling me that this "Pen comes with an ink converter" But sadly I can bet that the person whoever he was... had zero idea about what the hell is a ink converter. Bcoz this product DOES NOT have ANY SORT of ink converter in the packet, as the internal hole diameter of every pen can be different so its not possible to find a suitable ink converter online for this pen.

After receiving the pen I obviously felt pranked, but i gave benefit of doubt to the executive... Instead of returning the pen or instead of shouting on his wrong information he gave.... I decided to write to the ITC Classmate. Same day in the evening first thing I did was to I write to them asking about the posibilty of getting an Quink converter.....
Wrote email to classmate enquiring about the Quink converter
I wrote on 24th and I did got an email reply on 30th, they epressed their wish to talk about this so I gave my number in the reply. They called one but I was not able to talk as I was in the way, so I requested the lady to plz call me back in 1 hour as I can't talk due to loud noises on the road. But sadly I never got any callback after that. I will give benefit of doubt to the lady also bcoz many times signals of Vodafone dip to minimum and I go out of reach.

After the long story/history of the entry of this pen in my life, I would talk about review: 
  • Pen is a full plastic body pen with only the nib part made of metal. Bocz of this the look/finish of the product is not as good as parker or any other pens you can falunt. Even if u don't wanna show-off your new pen, you yourself will feel that huge difference in holding a smooth mental pen and holding this plastic pen.
  • Orange color & Flourocent Green color of this pen gives an obvious impression that this pen is made for students/kids only. Bcoz I'm in home and I'm not having any requirement to use this pen in offices so its not of an issue for me at the moment, but these colors will not let u use pen offically else everybody will have raised eyebrows.
  • Nib is full white metal and writes very smooth, but the way ink gets stuck on the nib gives me an impression that maybe the nib is not made for a very long time. This may mean that the nib of this pen will come for small time and may get rusted with time (if left unused with ink in the pen). Nib does not makes the scratching sound on the paper as we write. You can leterally start writing immediately after opening the pack of the pen (just like ball pen) and most satisfying part is that the pen writes very nice and noticably 0.5 size thickness.
  • Finger Grip: Yes the pen does comes with a Grip in the front part, but that grip is only an inbuilt part/design in the plastic body of the pen. Nothing additional like rubber coating, but its very nicely designed allowing us to hold the pen (no slipping).
  • Ink have a nice royal blue color shade, it looks like the ink will do last for good time. but it all really depends on the writing abilites of the individual person. Example: If a person pressed the nib too much then that will double up the flow of ink, or if the person makes too many overwritings/corrections then they are obviously using more ink but writing less.
Final Word:
At this price this is extremly good pen, but temporary/short-term investment.

I'm sharing the photos of the pen and a sample of how it writes:
Color & Thickness of the nib


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